I don't think SE is giving us the option to "go back" based on what I've read in MetaSE. At least there's nothing concrete to state that but it's been implied.
– Thomas Ward♦Sep 18 '17 at 22:00

3

Q: "Will we have the option of keeping the old one?". A: "No. Maintaining two significantly different versions of things (anything, not just the top nav) is a PITA. Everyone will get the new top nav." by an employee. This poll doesn't matter.
– user336085Sep 18 '17 at 22:17

This question isn't really what I'd call "neutral." It seems to be very heavily biased in the favor of changing the design, which is going to weigh the answers in favor of this as well. Perhaps the OP's opinion should be in an answer?
– Kaz WolfeSep 19 '17 at 17:44

1

@KazWolfe it is! the No answer is Android Dev's CW, but since I've added more newlines to it or whatever the crazy algorithm is it looks like I wrote it!
– ZannaSep 19 '17 at 18:57

4 Answers
4

No, keep the current design

The icons are cryptic. In particular, it seems nobody can find the review icon; on Stack Overflow, where the new top bar has been tested, reviewing has declined a lot

There are probably a lot of things contributing to this in one way or another. But it's hard to ignore that, after the initial "novelty" spike, the activity in review has been declining pretty consistently ever since we changed the textual link to an icon.

Textual links (in the old design) are easier to see at a quick glance

The search box is unnecessarily huge now and changes size in a disturbing way

The numbers on the messages and achievements icons are smaller and therefore harder to read, particularly if you're trying to optimise resolution on a small laptop screen

Menu on the right = needless change for the sake of change
– Organic MarbleSep 19 '17 at 16:14

2

While I have no doubt that I could adapt to it, I honestly don't see this as an improvement. Nothing in the changes made makes it any easier to review, check mail or achievements, switch stack exchange sites, check my progress, find help, or anything else I can think of. IF the top bar was an edit to a question or answer I would have to say "Changes are completely superfluous and do not improve clarity or accuracy"
– Elder GeekSep 25 '17 at 20:00

If you can review, you do get the button... low rep users can't review. Am I misunderstanding you?
– ZannaSep 19 '17 at 18:58

@Zanna From what I understood (I may be wrong), the "review" button is hidden to low-rep users entirely but visible for higher-rep users. Nobody specified the limits, so I'm just assuming it's 10k
– Kaz WolfeSep 19 '17 at 19:00

2

I assumed that If you can review, you get the review button (so, 500 for FPs and LAs here) seems I am correct - made another addition to the No answer - the Help button is replaced by the Review button when you can review, so then you have to dig around for the help center
– ZannaSep 19 '17 at 19:11

The thing I like the new design is a sort of representation of navigation. The user profile icon is near the navigation button just as the user translating in the different StackExchange networks. The StackExchange icon is along with the search to navigate within the stack.

my main concern is that people will not review. That's been the most noticeable effect of the change on SO. See this comment on Monica's answer on the MSE post (the answer is also a good read) - people are doing less with the new UI because it's not as obvious what the various bits of it do
– ZannaSep 18 '17 at 21:20

@Zanna where do you get that from? I had understood that the horrible new UI was having the opposite effect on SO: more, not fewer people reviewing. And the comment you linked to seems to suggest as much too: we've been preoccupied with review [ . . . ] random stuff breaks when reviews don't get done). Don't get me wrong, I hate this new bar with all the useful functionality exiled to the far right or hidden behind menus or whatnot, but I don't think you're right about reviewing.
– terdonSep 19 '17 at 20:54

@terdon in addition to Eliah Kagan's comment (I also linked and quoted Shog9's highly upvoted plea to replace the text in the review link in the CW answer in favour of keeping the current design - maybe I need to clarify this?), this positive post Has the top bar redesign met its goals? admits unambiguously (I think) that reviewing is down... If reviewing was up, I personally might support the new design regardless of whatever else I dislike about it. Review is the deal-breaker for me
– ZannaSep 20 '17 at 9:24

@Zanna yes, it was Shog's comment you linked to that I (mistakenly, apparently) understood to be saying that reviewing had gone up. My bad.
– terdonSep 20 '17 at 9:30